Marine tradition holds that the Corps was formed in a bar. The story dates to late-November 1775, when newly commissioned Captains Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullan supposedly organized the first Marine Corps muster at Tun Tavern, a popular watering hole in Philadelphia. The two officers are said to have lured potential Marines with mugs of beer and the promise of adventure on the high seas, and their recruits later made up the first five companies that served aboard Continental Navy ships. While there’s little hard evidence to back up the tavern tale—some historians maintain that a pub called the Conestoga Wagon was the more likely recruitment site—it remains a part of Marine lore to this day. The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia even contains a restaurant named “Tun Tavern.”